Legislation by Supervisor Eric Mar is designed to help convenience stores promote and sell healthier foods.

Legislation by Supervisor Eric Mar is designed to help convenience stores promote and sell healthier foods.

Photo: Katie Meek, The Chronicle

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Radman's Produce Market is one of the few stores that sell healthy products, including fresh produce, in the Tenderloin.

Radman's Produce Market is one of the few stores that sell healthy products, including fresh produce, in the Tenderloin.

Photo: Katie Meek, The Chronicle

Image 3 of 3

Measure to help corner stores sell healthy fare

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Stores such as Tip Top Market and Radman's Produce Market in the Tenderloin district sell healthy products including milk, cheese, brown rice and fresh produce.

But when you walk in, the first things you notice are cigarettes, candy, chips and sugary beverages. That's true for pretty much all 73 corner stores in this low-income neighborhood, and it's how the markets make most of their money.

Supervisor Eric Mar hopes to change that with a city program that would make it easier for stores to make money selling healthier products - items that are accessible and affordable for residents - by offering resources to make those changes. Legislation to create the program has already been introduced, and hearings are expected to be held this month.

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The voluntary program would target neighborhoods where grocery stores are scarce or nonexistent, but corner markets flourish. It would build on existing work at the Department of Public Health, where city employees have already partnered with community leaders to make over two markets in the Bayview neighborhood and are working with a coalition in the Tenderloin on a similar project.

"A lot of stores are covered in cigarette and alcohol ads, or junk food ads," said Mar, who has been working on childhood obesity and healthy food issues for several years. "I've really come to see food access as a civil rights issue. Many people don't have access to affordable, good quality food at a fair price, and corner stores are a key part of this."

Comprehensive approach

The goal is to educate store owners and help them transform their businesses from booze- and tobacco-focused outlets to clean, bright, inviting retailers where fresh groceries are easier to find than sugary soft drinks or other junk food.

Community groups, city officials and other experts would provide technical assistance such as helping stores access produce and other healthy products from wholesalers, redesigning store floor plans and facades, securing grants and loans to make the changes, and training employees. Mar's legislation would officially create a Healthy Food Retailers program in the Economic and Workforce Development Department.

"We've been working on this for a few years already, and what we've learned is you need a comprehensive approach," said Susana Hennessey-Lavery, a health educator at the Department of Public Health who is working in both the Bayview and Tenderloin. "The heart of the model is the community piece, and the other leg is the business side."

That's where Larry Brucia comes in. Brucia is president and owner of Sutti Associates, which works with mostly independent grocers on store designs, as well as healthy food behemoth Whole Foods. He helped DPH, Southeast Food Access and the Food Guardians in the Bayview remake Lee's Market and Ford's Grocery.

"The challenge with smaller stores is to maximize the amount of shelving and space available to sell products. When you are talking about bringing produce and healthier foods to a small store, the owner's immediate concern is that they will have to discontinue items that are selling and replace them with items they aren't sure will sell," he said. "Our job is to evaluate the space and allow a little store to keep all the products they have and create more space with shelving and fixtures."

'Make them trip over it'

To make healthier options profitable - which Brucia said can absolutely be done - they also have to be merchandized properly. That means produce should be front and center and displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

"The challenge is, when someone is used to going to the corner market to buy candy, snacks, alcohol and cigarettes ... they are not looking for produce, they have never seen it there and sometimes you have to almost knock consumers out - almost make them trip over it," he said, adding that his group continues to help clients with merchandizing for three years after the store is redesigned. "Consumers want to buy healthier food, they really do."

Store owners are signing on - in part because there is money to be made.

Brucia said tobacco and alcoholic products pull in a 15 to 25 percent profit margin; but according to the national research firm PolicyLink, profit margins on dairy, bread, meat and fresh produce range from 25 to 50 percent and can exceed 100 percent for prepared healthy foods such as salads. And the money is being spent somewhere already: In the Tenderloin, a survey conducted by the Tenderloin Healthy Corner Store Coalition found that residents are spending half of their grocery money outside the neighborhood - up $11 million a year.

Kamel Karajah, president of the Arab American Grocers Association, which represents about 450 San Francisco markets, said his group is supporting Mar's legislation in large part because it's not forcing stores to do anything, just offering a helping hand.

"Why not?" he said. "Store owners want to make money, and if it works they will continue it and more stores will as well."